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Courier trips come in a package of “pain & pleasure.” The former includes long hours of waiting in cold cargo areas with no coffee machines, at times delayed flights, riding in trucks, waiting for customs clearance, and frequent jet lag…but at the end of the tunnel, there are the pleasures of seeing new places and a lot of art! On a recent courier trip, we had the chance to visit the new Parisian museum Fondation Louis Vuitton, designed by architect Frank Gehry and opened to the public in October 2014 on the outskirts of Paris’s Bois De Boulogne. It is an amazing sailboat-like edifice made of glass and concrete that makes you feel small yet comfortable, showcasing contemporary art. In addition to the current exhibition of art from China, there are a few art commissions, including Ellsworth Kelly’s paintings for the auditorium, as well as Olafur Eliasson’s mesmerizing installation with sound. These courier’s perks make you alive and ready to jump on a plane again!

On view in Gauguin to Picasso: Masterworks from Switzerland, Camille Pissarro‘s Quarry, Pontoise is a lush, peaceful scene. After the Franco-Prussian War, the artist moved from Louveciennes to Pontoise in the rural Oise Valley, where he lived from 1872–82. He chose the hamlet of l’Hermitage for almost his entire stay, inspired by its streets, fields, and countryside. Here, Pissarro shows a woman with a basket walking past a quarry on the arcing path of the rue de l’Hermitage, which leads to the Saint-Antoine ravine. In this area 25 miles northwest of Paris, Pissarro painted side-by-side with Paul Cézanne from 1872 to 1874. Both artists greatly admired and influenced each other. Cézanne claimed to be a pupil of Pissarro and stated: “Perhaps we all come from Pissarro.”

It was with great pleasure yesterday that many of us attended a brown bag lunch talk from guest curator Cornelia Homburg who previewed her upcoming exhibition at the Phillips opening September 27th, 2014. Images, such as those below, quickly transported us from the unwelcome snow of DC to warm, sunny southern France.